Pedro de Garibay

Pedro de Garibay

Pedro de Garibay (* 1729 in Alcalá de Henares , Madrid province , Spain ; † July 7, 1815 in Mexico City ) was a Spanish officer and colonial administrator who served as Viceroy of New Spain.

Military career

Garibay made an officer career in the Spanish army. In 1762 he took part in the Spanish campaign in Portugal during the Seven Years' War and fought in Italy and Morocco .

In 1764 he went to New Spain as a troop trainer. In 1783 he was promoted to colonel and in 1789 to brigadier general. Viceroy Miguel José de Azanza elevated him to field marshal, probably in anticipation of his early retirement.

Situation after the occupation of Spain by Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte had Spain occupied by French troops in 1808. He held King Ferdinand VII prisoner in France and appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as the new king. The loyal Spanish resistance tried militarily to wear down the French with a guerrilla tactic, while a junta Suprema Central took over the affairs of state in Ferdinand's absence.

In the Spanish colonies, the question arose as to what legitimation and what form of organization should the legislature and executive continue to work with. The Peninsulares sent from Spain tended to wait until King Ferdinand was able to act again; they had their mouthpiece in New Spain in the representatives of the Real Audiencia of Mexico . The local Creoles, however, were looking for an independent solution with more local autonomy; moderate forces called for a Mexican junta modeled on the motherland, while more radical leaders demanded popular sovereignty and a separate congress, as the United States had shown.

Coup

After the discussions between the parties in Mexico remained unsuccessful and the viceroy José de Iturrigaray leaned towards the Creole side, on September 15, 1808 the coup d'état of the Peninsulares took place .

A few hundred men under the leadership of the merchant Gabriel de Yermo stormed (with the knowledge and approval of the Audiencia and the Archbishop) the Viceroy's palace, took him and his family prisoner and declared him deposed.

Tenure as viceroy

In place of the deposed Iturrigaray, the Audiencia appointed the most senior officer of the colony to be viceroy. This was Pedro de Garibay, portrayed as "old and frail" at the time.

He had all alleged representatives of an independence movement persecuted with great severity: Francisco Primo de Verdad (who died in captivity), Juan Francisco Azcárate , José Antonio Cristo and Melchor de Talamantes (who died of yellow fever in detention) were arrested.

Gabriel de Yermo withdrew from the political process, but his comrades-in- arms formed a volunteer militia that called themselves Reales Fieles (German: royal loyalty ) or Patriotas de Fernando VII (German: patriots of Ferdinand VII), but by the people because of their blue ones Uniform jackets were called chaquetas . The militia hunted down alleged supporters of independence and marauded in the weeks after the coup to such an extent that Garibay dissolved and banned them in October.

Charlotte Joachime from Spain brought new unrest to the colony. The sister of King Ferdinand was with her husband Johann VI. , the king of Portugal, fled to Brazil from Napoleon . She had launched the idea of naming her son Peter as the legitimate dynasty ruler of New Spain (and the other Spanish colonies in Latin America). This thought found favor with a number of politicians, the Carlotistas .

Napoleonic France also strove for New Spain. The French general Octavio d'Alvimar tried to gather the strength of the independence supporters in Texas . He was caught and expelled.

At the behest of the Audiencia, the viceroy, who was extremely inexperienced in political questions, published the decisions and pronouncements of the Junta Suprema Central, which the Oidores then recognized as a legitimate government institution. Garibay and his administration tried to support the royal side in Spain with much-needed funds. When the alliance with England made shipping across the Atlantic safe again, additional merchant ships were built.

Deposition and death

The conflict between the forces loyal to the king and the proponents of autonomy or independence for Mexico continued to smolder. The Bishop of Michoacán , Manuel Abad y Queipo , wrote to the junta in Spain asking for military and political reinforcements. The Audiencia also recognized that Garibay was not the right man to restore unity to the colony.

In Cádiz the Archbishop of Mexico, Francisco Javier de Lizana y Beaumont , who had already played an important role in the overthrow of the Viceroy Iturrigaray , was elected as the new viceroy . The appointment reached Mexico City in mid-July 1809.

Garibay actually wanted to return to Europe, but his financial resources did not allow it. The merchant Gabriel de Yermo, leader of the coup d'état of September 15, 1809, finally granted Garibay a pension of 500 pesos a month. After Ferdinand's return to Spain, Garibay was enrolled in the Order of Charles III in 1814 . inducted, promoted to lieutenant general and rewarded with an annual pension of 10,000 pesos.

He died in Mexico City in July 1815.

swell

• Biography (spanish)
• Biography (spanish)
• History of his tenure (Spanish)
• Fernando Orozco: Gobernantes de México . 3. Edition. Panorama Editorial, Mexico City 2004, ISBN 968-38-0260-5 ( books.google.de ).
• Juana Vázquez Gómez: Dictionary of Mexican Rulers, 1325–1997 . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, USA 1997, ISBN 0-313-30049-6 ( books.google.de ).
• Barbara H. Stein, Stanley J. Stein: Crisis in an Atlantic Empire: Spain and New Spain 1808-1810 . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, USA 2014, ISBN 1-4214-1425-2 ( books.google.de ).

predecessor	Office	successor
José de Iturrigaray	Viceroy of New Spain 1808–1809	Francisco Javier de Lizana y Beaumont